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Thursday, 27 August 2009

Scottish earldom up for sale

The Scotland on Sunday newspaper carried a story last Sunday regarding the potential sale of a Scottish earldom, reputedly for a price which may go up to half a million pounds. In the days of old, when knights were bold, and people were freezing their buns off across the land, you could basically only be an earl if you had an earldom - the title was tied to the land. With the Abolition of Feudal Tenure Act in 2000, which took effect in 2004, feudalism was abolished, and any such titles (including barons etc) became just that - titles.

The actual earldom has as yet to be identified, but recent sales have seen the Earldom of Arran go for £200,000 and a baronial title in Skye for a million pounds. It is unclear from the article as to whether a set of scales comes with the purchase, in order to measure the relative values of money and sense...!